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Topic: USAR (Read 8489 times)

The horrible bridge collapse in the US made me wonder about a couple of things.

In Adelaide a structure has collapsed it is(was) a 3 story concrete building with a car park underneath and it is known that people are trapped in the rubble.

now it is equal distance from CFS and MFS stations so it doesn't matter what service is responded. Obviously the first crews to arrive will do what they can to protect extremities and any easily accessibly rescues whilst remaining safe. Now my main question is once the site had been deemed a recovery and not a rescue who job is it to recover any casualties?

and Is there anything taught in USAR that should make me Tell my Crews NOT to move rubble etc. even if people are visible and screaming at them?

As tempting as it is I wouldn't be moving anything until a USAR trained service was there as that type of thing can be extremely unstable, if you were the first crew on scenean non USAR trained i would go into protection mode and help anyone who isn't trapped etc.

With an incident of that size! You wouldn't have time to scratch you donkey, net alone complete your sceene assessment, and SA has a capable USAR Team with member in SAAS, SES and MFS, the state usar training is expanding with more and more involved, another three week course is planned later this year!! they simulate just that senario so they are well prepared!!

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You need to get a life outside of the CFS. Go outside, look around. I'm sure trailer parks smell lovely in the morning.

first response would obviously be local fire service, plus whatever the system has in it for a 'structure collapse'... this would possibly be local SES plus a specialist SES USAR unit and regional/state officer probly a fire service regional or district officer also, could also include a fire service heavy rescue appliance if applicable...

first one scene would most likely be local fire, complete an initial assesment and upgrade response, perform any fire fighting duties, and assist with medical if possible.

if the first arriving resources are USAR trained then complete and initial assesment and get to work.

USAR resources arrive and get to work with full asessments and then search and rescue.

presumably an officer from either fire service or ses would arrive shortly and upgrade response request further resources, take over IC fairly snappily..

as others have said the USAR trained services in the state have done plenty of exercises that cover this exact sort of thing and are amongst the best crews in the country...

RTW - one would hope you would take the time to complete an assesment, no point just throwing your crews in there to 'do there best'... rescue has to be coordinated and take into account all the risks on scene.

After making the scene safe for crews to enter (eg what caused the collapse ? Do we have another Gladstone incident), the 1st responders should aim to begin the 1st part of the '5 stages of Rescue' or CREST.

One of the hardest tasks, even in exercises, is the Recce. But it essential to be done accurately, quickly and early...It is really difficult to keep moving to survey the other portions of the incident when a casualty screams at you to help them.

But you could have 20 people stuck behind a door behind movable debris, further on....

Another task for first responders is to secure the scene so spectators do not become casualties. This can occur by spectators entering the incident area, spectators collapsing after seeing the incident, stress on relatives of casualties, etc, etc.

As seen in the USA bridge collapse, if you can organise the spectators they can assist in the 'clearance of surface casualties'. They can also assist comforting/first aid in your central location for all casualties outside of the incident area.

A USAR team will use a standard USAR wall marking system, which is internationally recognised & is taught in USAR cat 1 course. This will detail via a diagram if it is safe to enter a space or area, how many casualties removed, who did the recce and how many are still trapped. The markings will be drawn in orange paint (spray cans).

Unfortunately, depending on when, where & time that the building collapse occured, you might not save everyone. It will also depend on the type of collapse (eg pancake, etc).

The 'aim of rescue' is always "to save the maximum number of lives in the minimum time".

im not sure how the control agency of an incident in MFS fire area would be determined,,, but i guess that puts SASES in charge (of the search and rescue side of things) of any incidents in CFS fire area.... lol i can just imagine the noses that would be put out of place with that.

Who are the USAR in SA? or where are they based and is there a reason there isn't any trained people in CFS?

The CFS was actually going to participate in USAR a couple of years ago, so much so that a few of us undertook the CAT 1 USAR course to become CFS instructors. Unfortunately that is where it all stopped, I believe the decision was made by senior staff that it was not part of CFS core business and that CFS would not be participating in anything USAR related at all.

Bit of a pity really as the CAT 1 course is good fun and gives first responders the skills necessary to safely remove surface casualties and perform rapid assessment of damaged structures.

When you consider that there is a reasonable chance that CFS would be involved somehow at a major USAR incident it is sad that they won't have the appropriate training to be able to undertake any work on a rubble pile or collapsed structure.

im not sure how the control agency of an incident in MFS fire area would be determined,,, but i guess that puts SASES in charge (of the search and rescue side of things) of any incidents in CFS fire area.... lol i can just imagine the noses that would be put out of place with that.

As a professional organisation we should respect each others combatant authority at an incident...if its SES so be it, we are all trained to certain levels however many hands make light work